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Miniature replica of Our Lady of Pompei ChurchJames Albanese talks about the miniature replica of Our Lady of Pompei Church that his late father-in-law Isadore Discenza created in 1961. The miniature is on display in the West Jefferson Street window of Landmark Theatre in downtown Syracuse.

Syracuse -- Editor's note: The late newspaper editor and columnist Mario Rossi wrote about the late Isadore "Izzy" Discenza's handcrafted miniature replica of Our Lady of Pompei Church in the Jan. 15, 1995, edition of the Herald-American. Discenza's son-in-law, James Albanese, has reassembled the miniature in the West Jefferson Street window of the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse. It is part of the theater's Christmas window displays. Here is Mario Rossi's column from January 1995.
By Mario Rossi

Some people look at an altar and see an altar.

Frank Discenza looked at an altar and saw an entire church.

Which was quite a perspective for a 9-year-old lad.

That's how old he was when he spotted a tiny, marble-like altar on a shelf in his grandmother's garage. It had been stored away along with a small Nativity scene. Frank told his father, Isadore Discenza, he'd like to do something special with the altar, and maybe place it in a large cardboard box which he would develop into a model of a church.

Good idea, his dad agreed, but he suggested wood instead of cardboard.

Over the next few years, father and son built a four-foot structure complete with sanctuary, steeple, priests, pews and parishioners, surrounding streets, lights and eventually, piped-in music, Stained glass windows, an organ loft, choir, nuns in traditional habit, and such amenities as microphone and lights, holy water stand and belfry clock, as well as snow on the ground, complete a realistic parish scene brought to life each year during the Christmas season and carefully stored away in January to await another Christmas a year later.

Isadore Discenza died a few years ago, but three decades after the miniature was completed, Frank, now an accountant, keeps faith with the tradition he and his father originated. With the assistance of his brother, Dan, and other family members, Frank carefully reconstructs the parish scene in the family room at the Durston Avenue home of his mother, Mary Discenza. It's set up on large, covered tables amid a snowy setting, with outdoor Nativity scene, parishioners entering the open-door church and moving along the simulated streets outside.

The old Our Lady of Pompei Church on North McBride Street was the general inspiration for the miniature replica that young Frank had in mind. Thus, the model resembles this structure more than it does the replacement church, though there's a profusion of traffic and a well-filled parking lot that give a contemporary feeling about the project. Even a motorcycle is in the busy line of vehicles in front of the model's church.

From time to time, new features are introduced; some years back, when the Singing Nuns were popular on television and in recordings, they were added to the parish family in miniature. And when the Catholic church made a change in the celebration of Mass which called for priests to face their congregation, a similar revision took place in the model.

All sorts of ingenuity have been brought into play in developing the model. For example, pieces of coat hangers were used to create stairway railings and ceiling lamps were fashioned from flashlights cut in two. The organ was made by hand. A free-standing rectory was also added.

The overall scene is one of life. The lights illuminate, the music resounds, parishioners sit in the pews, priests celebrate Mass, ushers are busy, nuns lift their voices in song and young altar servers carry out their duties.

The stained glass windows reflect the warmth and glow of the interior.

When one walks into the spacious family room at Mary Discenza's home and sees the colorful, incandescent scene, it's almost like being invited to come to church. And the wealth of detail generates scrutiny and comment, whether the visitor is a relative coming again for an annual look or a newcomer.

It's this kind of response that serves to keep the project vibrant for Frank Discenza through the years.